Earn Extra Money While on Vacation
December 10th, 2008
You have to answer these 2 questions before we proceed. Do you have a spare room in your house? Are you willing to let a stranger or strangers live in your home while you’re on vacation? Thank you for replying ‘yes’ to both.
Letting out your home to earn money is better than leaving it vacant and alone for several weeks. Empty houses often attract burglars. If you’re not comfortable with strangers staying in your home, you may spread word to your friends about your intentions. Chances are big that a friend of a friend would be interested to rent your house for a week or two, or even a month. This way, you will have peace of mind because someone will be watering your plants and taking care of your house while you’re enjoying a trip.
This arrangement is perfect for long vacations such as backpacking through Australia or a leisurely Caribbean cruise. Exploring the world’s smallest continent on foot will need at least 3 months to complete. Otherwise, you may not see any place outside Sydney. One important thing that you have to do upon arrival to any country is to buy a mobile phone (if you did not have one yet) and an international sim card so that you will be able to call your friends and relatives from home. You may also call your tenant to ask how things are in your house. Before going away, you have to set up payment methods so that you could still pay your bills even when not at home. You just have to register at the utility companies’ websites.
One way of ensuring your enjoyment during a vacation is finding timeshare properties, which are often reasonably priced when rented out especially during off-season.
Because you have a spare room that you just use as storage or guest room occasionally, you may want to continue renting out that extra space. To help you find tourists who are looking to pay for a room for one or two nights, join a website that helps match room-for-rent owners to travelers, who are both from different countries.
RoomFT (or Room For Travellers) has members worldwide and has more than 2,000 rooms featured. Members are required to upload pictures of themselves, the room available for rent (for hosts only), and some important information such as contact details. There is a verification option for both hosts and travelers.
For your personal comfort and privacy, and also your guest’s, you may want to invest on a shower cubicle be installed in the spare room.